Gymnasium/Matura examination for adults?

Family, Education, Health and Pets
1
Hi all,

I am asking for a friend as I already have my degree and high school examinations long over with!

They are interested in getting a high school diploma, think this is known as the Matura, in Switzerland with the view to study at ETH.

Private schools are going to be too expensive for them so I am just wondering if anyone can tell me if there is such a thing as gymnasium for adult learners, those returning to high school education who want to prepare for the Matura?

Thanks for any help!

2
That is a very interesting question? Studying as an adult was almost unheard of in the 70s and 80s- in Switzerland. Whereas in the UK you could take O and A levels as adults all the time- and even going to Uni as a mature student was fairly common (remember the wonderful film 'Educating Rita' with Julie Walters and Michael Caine).

For me, that was fabulous- took a few O'Levels as external student when I was at home with the children- then to Uni aged 29, when the youngest started school- and it was the beginning of a whole new life for me. Fortunately my Swiss Baccalauréat was accepted as Uni entrance- together with previous professional experience and those relevant O and A levels. Does your friend have a similar qualification from 'back home' which may be considered 'equivalent' for the purpose with entrance exam?

At my last school in the UK, a secondary school and 6th Form college - we had a totally open policy, and so did we at my second school (also secondary + 6th Form) with adults joining normal A'Level classes all the time. Their participation really gave a 3rd dimension to the classes- and several came back as voluntary assistant/e/s afterwards. Brilliant.

Just not the case at our local secondary and Gymnase/Lycée - would love to hear if that is the case in parts of CH. I discussed the possibility with the Head here and some of the teachers- and they were horrified at the thought (sadly). Same in local French schools and others I did exchanges with in the past, and also when I was in Berlin and Saarbrücken, and also Prague.

3
Has he already finished high school? Does he speak German? Level C1 required to start most Bachelor Degrees.

The general is info is here:

http://www.swissuniversities.ch/en/s...-certificates/

More on ETH website.

4
Some cantons have schools for adults wanting to go to university e.g. KME for Zürich, MSE for Luzern, AME for Aargau, BME for Bern, TSME for Thurgau and Schaffhausen etc. These are free. If your canton e.g. Graubünden or Glarus etc., doesn't have one your education department will support your studies in another canton. I assume the same thing happens in other parts of the country. Of course your friend needs to be fluent in the language of the canton.

5
Awesommme! Thank you for this info. My friend did make a call to the education dept, but not sure which one they called. They got a figure of 9 -11k for fees to do it. Does that in any way sound correct? They didnt ask anything else and are still clueless.

6
Did they have to pay anything Odile? As the government would be funding the under 18's. The schools near me all had adult education classes, but they were in the evening and charge a small fee.

7
assuming they are also in Thurgau, prices here http://tsme.ch/index.php?id=102

8
You live in TG so your friends probably do too (or SG, AI, AR), in which case they definitely want to check out www.isme.ch

(presumably very similar setup as tsme.ch posted by Island Monkey)

A friend at the office is doing the Zweitwegmatura with them in St. Gallen, he likes their professionalism. Takes 7 semesters, total tuitions are around 5k CHF (1k for the 1st semester, decreasing to 600CHF for the 7th) plus a few hundred in total for books. Teachers are professionals from the Gymnasium SG, they use the Gymnasium rooms and infrastructure (which is why lessons take place on wednesday and saturday afternoons as the ordinary pupils enjoy free time then).

In order to study at a swiss university you don't need a Matura in every case. For instance ETH has admission tests (which probably are math focused so no need for history and the languages), or with a Berufsmittelschule they can do the Passerelle (usually takes one year) which allows them to study at any swiss university (not internationally recognised though).

9
Seems high. You can do an OU degree for not much more.

10
Ok that's interesting. I thought ETH would require the Matura and then admission tests for maths and science subjects if you are missing those in your Matura? He is dead set on ETH.

11
Swissdip, it really would not hurt to take a look for admissions criteria for foreign students at the ETH website. Having a Swiss Matura is NOT one of the requirements.

12
He wants the high school diploma anyway

13
https://www.ethz.ch/en/studies/regis...plication.html

You need a high school diploma to get into ETH, be it the Swiss Matura or not, at least it seems so going by the info in this link above.

And as I mentioned in my question, they do not yet have one.

Huge thanks again to Nixi. I put them onto the isme school nixi mentioned and they found out they can do the Matura part time over three years or full time over one year.